Page No.328-336
Anil Kumar Yadav*, Shalini Dubey** & I.L. Singh**
Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Madhya Pradesh*
Banaras Hindu University, Uttar Pradesh**
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Maintaining attention with concentration over prolonged periods of time during vigilance
task, which may be monotonous, generally increases reaction time and errors. Such
decrement in performance gets intensified during higher event rate condition. The present
study was conducted on 40 male undergraduate and postgraduate students to examine
the effects of event rate and task duration on behavioural, physiological and subjective
measures. Two event rates were manipulated and mental workload was measured prior
to and after the 40-minutes successive discrimination vigilance task. Correct responses
were higher under low event rate while both event rates showed decrement in accuracy
with progress in time block. Heart rate and heart rate variability pattern observed across
time period in two event rate conditions were inconsistent with previous researches.
Perceived mental workload increased from pre to post task session though the workload
was reported as similar under high and low event rate conditions. Maintaining vigilance
is a demanding task which resulted in deterioration of performance as well as mounting
of perceived mental workload. Findings of present study may be implemented to work
settings while designing systems and work environment, which involve vigilance functions
and where production, safety and efficiency of operators are major concerns.
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